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Egypt Urged To Spare Cartoonist On Trial
by Riham
el-Kasaby
CAIRO, Feb 13 (IslamOnline) - Amnesty International on Monday criticized Egypt for placing a cartoonist on trial in proceedings that will start Wednesday after he ridiculed one of the country's courts.
"We are very concerned with the situation that a cartoonist is facing a prison term as a result of expressing his views," the international human rights group said in a press release obtained by IslamOnline in Cairo.
Issam al-Din Hanafi faces up to three years in jail because he "drew a cartoon," said the organization.
In December 1999, Hanafi and two other journalists of the Islamist-oriented opposition newspaper, al Shaab, were sentenced to two years in jail following a libel case brought by a government minister.
After the court verdict, al-Shaab published Issam's cartoon, entitled "the unfair ruling against al-Shaab."
Amnesty said that the case was far from being the only one of its kind, referring to an increasing number of detainees in Arab Muslim countries "simply because they are using their right of freedom in expression."
Over the past year alone at least 30 "prisoners of conscience" - individuals who have not used or advocated the use of violence - were sentenced to prison terms of between six months and five years in connection with their political or religious beliefs, the group said.
The organization says that this year, the situation is not any better, as "in mid-January seven individuals who were alleged to have been members of the Baha'i faith - a religious minority - were detained," in Egypt.
Two weeks later, writer Salah al-Din Muhsin, 43, was sentenced to three years imprisonment, accused of "offending religion" in his publications.
In September, Manal Wahid, the alleged leader of a religious group, and three of her followers, were charged with "offending religion" were also sentenced to prison terms of between three and five years by the Emergency State Security Court for Misdemeanors.
In November, the Supreme Military Court sentenced 15 professionals and alleged members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood to prison terms of between three and five years, the organization stated.
The human rights organization has called upoon Egyptian authorities to immediately release all such prisoners of conscience, and review legislation used to penalize writers, journalists and intellectuals.
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